Stop and Smell the Rosé

A few short months ago I wrote these words for the January issue: “Another year has come and gone. 100 Days has just passed and I have become very reflective as of late. After all, I am about to enter the workforce and adult life will hit me in a few short months. This year will be a year of transition for me–I will be graduating from college and beginning a new chapter of my life.” Without meaning to, I set into motion a reflection and realization that I had thought I would have at least until May to come to face, but with my time at Roanoke cut short, I have had to think about what comes next sooner than I intended as well as look back on my time in a town that stole my heart.

A few days after the shock of the decision to go online for the rest of the spring semester, I wrote this on my Instagram account.

Although I may have been a tad bit dramatic, I did start to look back at my last four years. And it filled me with a nostalgia that only a college graduate can feel. While I could tell you all the wonderful, difficult, trying times I have gone through (whilst trying not to cry) and give you some hard-earned advice, I am not going to do that.

Instead, I am going to tell you about what only a Food Editor naturally chose to do for her senior year: Every Monday, I drank a bottle of rosé. My goal for senior year was to accomplish a tangible thing (besides a diploma), so I decided to become a connoisseur of rose (or at least every bottle on the shelf of Kroger).

So every Monday, I rose up to the challenge. I would drink a bottle of rosé, watch a movie or The Bachelor with my friends and just unwind. Mondays already sucked, why not make it better? I dedicated time every week solely to myself–no work, no obligation, nothing could come between me and my rosé…every…Monday. (This was sometimes hard to do especially since I was going through Senior Seminar fall semester.) At first my friends laughed at me and questioned why I had to drink a whole bottle every Monday. Why not just a glass or two?

And I wondered about it too, because clearly that is beyond the standard drinking size. But as the Mondays flew by, I saw my answer as each empty wine bottle lined the top of my wardrobe. I had a physical, tangible passage of time right above my wardrobe. I could track each week of my senior year just based on the wine bottle I drank that week. And it was beautiful. I don’t think it was purposeful. I certainly didn’t mean to create a diary of wine, but I did. I had a record of my senior year and tangible evidence of accomplishing something (even if it is just drinking a bottle of wine every Monday).

I guess there are a lot of lessons I could draw from my Rosé Monday, as I liked to call it.

Dedicate time to yourself even when you are beyond stressed

Look forward to something each week ( I really did look forward to Monday–crazy right?)

Accomplish a small victory every week

Record the memories

But the biggest lesson I found was that I should do at least one thing I love every week, regardless of the usefulness of it or the judgment of others. As long as you love and enjoy it (granted, if it is 100% illegal and puts others in danger/harm’s way, I don’t condone that), then do it. Because that is what life is all about.

So I guess I lied. I did have some advice after all. What can I say, I am an editor and that’s what we like to do.

I want to say thank you to everyone who has read my articles throughout my time at the Brackety-Ack and who has been willing to allow me into their life, if only for a moment. I am sad to no longer say I am an editor of a newspaper (but I hope one day I can say that again ;P).

I wish good luck to everyone who still has more years as a student to go (undergrad and beyond). Don’t forget to stop and smell the rosé!